Phil Jackson had a chance to trade for Boston’s Jae Crowder in 2014 and opted instead to acquire a second-round pick. He calls this decision, which was part of the Tyson Chandler/Raymond Felton trade, his biggest mistake as Knicks team president.
Jackson made his remarks in an interview with Charley Rosen after the season that was published Friday by Today’s FastBreak:
Here is Jackson’s full quote from the interview: “I don’t consider hiring Fish [Derek Fisher] a mistake because he worked hard and got the guys to stay as positive as possible while the losses piled up. I think the biggest mistake I made was actually this. … One of the first deals I engineered when I came back to New York was to trade Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton to Dallas for Shane Larkin, Jose Calderon, Wayne Ellington, Samuel Dalembert, plus a second-round pick that the Mavs owed to the Celtics. In talking with Boston, I was given the option of taking that pick or else taking Jae Crowder. I liked Crowder but I thought he wouldn’t get much of a chance to play behind Carmelo, so I took the pick, which turned out to be Cleanthony Early. While Cleanthony has missed lots of time in the past two seasons with us, he still has the potential to be a valuable player. Even so, I should have taken Crowder.
My initial reaction is… bullshit. Danny Ainge is too smart to make this offer.
But… Jae Crowder wasn’t doing much prior to his arrival in Boston. He was a defense first player, averaging 5 ppg in about 15-17 mpg. His offense didn’t really evolve until Brad Stevens entered the mix.
So this season when Crowder is running wild, thank your lucky stars that Phil Jackson isn’t smarter than Danny Ainge.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
